


We Believe in the Future of Agriculture (And, Maybe, in the Gays)

by stardustgirl



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (at least not biologically), (sort of), Agriscience Fair, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Bending (Avatar TV), Bisexual Disaster Sokka (Avatar), Boys In Love, Crack Treated Seriously, Ducks, F/M, FFA AU, Fluff, Future Farmers of America, Goats, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Iroh (Avatar) Isn't Zuko's Uncle, Iroh (Avatar) loves Tea, M/M, Nerdiness, Past Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Science Boyfriends, Science Experiments, Self-Indulgent, Slow Burn, Smart Sokka (Avatar), Soft Boys, Sokka (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Sokka isn't super nice in this at first, Sokka texts while driving but that does not mean I endorse it, State Fair, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, The Boys(tm) Hatch Some Duck Eggs, Zuko (Avatar) Has Issues, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, and they were partners on a group project!, but he still loves him bc iroh's great like that, but he'll get nicer!! i promise, ffa, this is the ffa au literally no one asked for but i wanted it so now it's here, this is very very
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25750582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: Sokka's finally decided to join his school's budding agriculture program, after lots of pressure from both Suki and Katara.  However, he wasn't expecting to get thrown back into science fair, or to be the assigned partner of the Self-nominated Class Emo, Zuko.  Maybe he shouldn't have signed up for this after all.Then again, baby ducks and baby goats might make everything worth it.  And so might a new boyfriend.(Or; Zuko and Sokka meet in FFA and the rest is history.)
Relationships: Iroh & The Gaang (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	We Believe in the Future of Agriculture (And, Maybe, in the Gays)

**Author's Note:**

> here's the self-indulgent zukka ffa au that i've been working on because i'm salty state and national convention got canceled (i mean i understand because i want to get covid as much as the next person lol but ,, Sad Hours(tm))

Sokka stares at the text, brows furrowed in confusion. _we did partners just now for ag fair btw!_

‘Partners?’ What _partners?_ Why in the world would he need a _partner?_ It’s not like he’s even _competing_ at fair, either, he’s just going for FFA Day and the fair food and the clunky rides and practically everything else wonderful that he’s heard about it from Suki and Katara. He doesn’t want to be stuck in the barn all day in show clothes, and especially not when it means he’ll have to _find_ an animal to show. There’s no way he’d be able to pass off Aang’s dog as a sheep, no matter _how_ fluffy Appa is.

The light changes to green, and Sokka clicks his phone off, easing down on the gas. He can ask Aang when he gets to school.

He pulls into the parking lot, throwing his car into park. He gets out, absently crossing around to the passenger side to sling his backpack over one shoulder and then grabbing the slip of paper that passes as his excuse.

He’s signed in and past the front office within just a few minutes, headed to Basic Ag. He slips in through the back, walking around the edge of the room to drop his late pass in the tray at the front. Everyone seems to be preoccupied with work; about half the room is talking while the other half is silently on their phones. So the usual, he supposes. Maybe the fair business is said and done already, and he can just slip into his seat next to Aang and Toph and they can start making plans for the weekend—

“Ah, Sokka! So glad you could join us!”

He cringes at the voice, letting the pass flutter down into the tray before turning to face the teacher. Mr. Westdragon is an older man who insists on everyone calling him by his first name, Iroh, but it’s just too much of a disconnect for Sokka to do so. He’s super nice, though, and doesn’t mind when Sokka asks more in-depth questions (unlike most of the rest of his teachers).

“Hey, sorry, I just put my excuse in the tray but I was at an appointment—“

Mr. Westdragon waves in dismissal, smiling. “Don’t worry; we’ve barely started. We just finished going over the requirements for the Agriscience Fair, and everyone picked their partners just now. You came in at the perfect time, though! Let’s find you someone.” Mr. Westdragon gestures, and Sokka follows him over to a dark-haired boy with earbuds in and the hood of his sweatshirt tugged over his head, huddled in a desk in the far corner while he works on something with a thick textbook.

“Zuko, do you know Sokka?”

The other teen raises his head, and Sokka can’t help the initial thought of, _No_ wonder _no one’s picked him as a partner_. “No, can’t say I do,” he answers dryly. His voice is raspy, and for a second Sokka wonders if he’s a smoker.

“Wonderful! It is always good to make new friends. Well, Zuko, this is Sokka. Sokka, meet Zuko. Zuko, am I correct in saying that you don’t have a partner yet?”

“Well, technically, yes, but I was planning on applying individually—“

“Great! Would you two be okay being partners with each other?”

Sokka glances uncertainly at Zuko. He’s definitely emitting please-say-no-I-don’t-want-to-be-partners vibes, so Sokka shrugs and decides to let him make the decision. “I’m okay if Zuko is.”

Mr. Westdragon turns to him, raising an eyebrow. Zuko shrugs before sighing, loudly. “Sure.”

Sokka suppresses the grimace at being the assigned partner to the Self-nominated Class Emo, and instead just nods. “Zuko, can you explain to Sokka the guidelines for the project? I need to go make some tea.”

Zuko nods, and Mr. Westdragon smiles and walks away. Then Self-nominated Class Emo turns to Sokka.

“You did science fair in middle school, right? This is science fair.”

“I thought I outgrew that when I hit high school,” Sokka groans good-naturedly. Zuko just raises an eyebrow.

“Apparently we didn’t. This one has to be focused on agriculture, though.”

“Okay. Agriculture. That’s– that’s easy, right? Uh...oh! Wait, no, never mind, that wouldn’t work, uh….”

He sits there, wracking his brain and staring into space—staring at Zuko’s shadowed face beneath his hood, a part of him realizes, but he ignores that part—until Zuko clears his throat, sliding his phone toward Sokka.

“This says baby birds will imprint on whatever they see when they first hatch.”

Sokka blinks, taking the phone and scanning the article. “Yeah? What about that?”

“Well, Animal Sciences is one of the divisions, and we could probably buy some eggs to hatch….”

Sokka catches on, and a slow grin spreads across his face. “And see if they imprint on us?” Self-nominated Class Emo nods. “That’s genius! Wait, what kind of birds though? And where would we keep them?”

“Iroh said we could use any of the facilities here, within reason, if we needed to. Like down at the barn or up here in the lab or whatever. For– for the project, I mean. We have an incubator, and we could build a coop or a pen or whatever birds need.”

“Wait, you actually call him Iroh? But don’t you find that weird?”

Zuko shrugs. “I dunno. He said he wanted us to call him that, so I figured it was okay.” He pulls his phone back from Sokka, gaze on the article for a moment before his eyes flick up to meet Sokka’s. “Is that okay?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, I mean, I don’t care either way? If he says it’s okay it probably is. _I_ just feel weird calling him that, so I still call him Mr. Westdragon.” The other boy nods.

“Makes sense.”

They’re silent for a moment before Sokka snaps his fingers. “When do we have to start by? Because we should probably get the eggs soon.”

“We can ask him for approval at the end of class, but we can start looking now.” Sokka nods, pulling his phone out and unlocking it.

“What kind of birds should we do?”

“Ducks...ducks are used for agriculture stuff a lot, right?” Zuko asks, voice quiet. “And they’re...kind of cute, too. I think we should do ducks—if you’re okay with it, that is. If you don’t want to do ducks, we can do something else, I’m honestly fine with anything—”

“Zuko, ducks sound great. As long as they’re not geese, I’m fine.” They both laugh, and Sokka starts googling “hatching duck eggs for sale near me.”

The rest of class passes in much the same way, and at the end Zuko and Sokka fill out the project questionnaire Mr. Westdragon handed out at the beginning of class—”One per group,” Zuko says. They take it up to him and end up waiting in line behind Aang and Toph.

The freshmen are talking a mile a minute, Aang gesticulating wildly. One of his hands flies out, catching Zuko by the hood and knocking it off. Aang begins apologizing profusely, but Sokka’s focus is drawn to Zuko.

No _wonder_ his face had seemed so shadowed, even with the hood, he thinks. Half of Zuko’s face is covered with a dark, leathery burn scar.

**Author's Note:**

> also just a heads up this is going to be inspired a lot on my personal experience with ffa and being in a newish chapter so ,,, there'll be some weirdly specific stuff in here? idk lol


End file.
